The diagnosis of asthma can be a long and complicated process because not all children with asthma have similar symptoms. For example, some kids cough all night, but it seems fine in the daytime, while others suffer frequent chest colds that are difficult to cure. It is quite common that a child has these symptoms for months before I see a doctor.

To make a diagnosis of asthma, the doctor must rule out other possible causes of the symptoms of children. To this end, parents will ask about family history of asthma and allergies, check the child and may request certain laboratory tests, chest X-rays, blood tests and skin tests for allergies.

During the process, parents must provide the medical details of the following:

1. symptoms: intensity, when and where they occur, how often they occur, how long and how to refer
2. Allergies: Allergies history of child and family
3. illnesses: how often the child gets a cold, the severity of colds and how long
4. triggers: exposure to irritants and allergens, life changes or stressful events recently, or other factors that seem to trigger an attack

This information will help the doctor understand the pattern of the child’s symptoms, which will determine the type of asthma you have and what is the best treatment.

To confirm the diagnosis of asthma, your doctor may want to check your child’s breathing capacity using a spirometer, a device that analyzes the flow of air passing through the airways. Spirometer is also used to check for respiratory problems of children refers to the drug, one of the main features of asthma.

The doctor may write the measurement of peak flow meter, give the child a drug that opens airways and then make another measurement to see if breathing improves with medication. If the drug is significantly corrected the airway constriction, as indicated by improved airflow, there will be a good chance that the child has asthma.

Once the child has been diagnosed, the family must learn to control asthma so that asthma does not control the family. Try to find out everything possible about this disease and learn to identify and eliminate factors that trigger it.

Help your child keep track of asthma, to develop and follow a plan of action, and taking prescribed medications. In addition, you can use at home peak flow meter, portable device that measures the breathing capacity. When peak flow readings drop, you increase inflammation in the airways.

Tagged with: children with asthma • The diagnosis of asthma • the symptoms of children
 

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2012 at 8:19 am and is filed under Chronic Asthma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.